Peirce's Choice
by The Broken Mask
Summary: Sodor's Engine's Writing Challenge #11. Peirce lived and worked peacefully on his line in the north, skirting between Canada and Alaska. He is assigned to the new line that runs deep into Alaska and encounters a odd group of engines. When his railroad is threatened, he must choose between staying with what he knows or going after his missing lover, a decision he may come to regret.
1. Part One

**Sodor's Engines Writing Challenge #11**

**Prompt:** At one point in their lives, everyone has had to or will have to make a decision that changes the course of their lives forever. What lead them to make the decision and what happened after?

**Restrictions:** Can be multiple chapters or a one-shot. Word limit for the story is 1500-5000 times the number of chapters, eg. a three chapter story would have a limit of 4500-15000 words. Main character(s) can be either engine or human, OC or canon, and must feature at least one other character in a speaking role, including both human and engine canons. Story should have a clear build up to the decision and a little bit about how it affected the character(s).

**Word Count:** 6,186 Total, 3,277 in Part 1 and 2,909 in Part 2

**Characters Used:** Peirce, Lizable, Danielle, Clarabelle, Genevieve (Genny), Bear, Wolf, Rest of the Alaskan Siblings, Icicle, Glacier, The Canadian Engine (unnamed), Peirce's workmates, Durant

_Note: Durant belongs to Saberius Prime while other named characters are my OCs._

* * *

Along the southern coast of Alaska, in among the picturesque countryside, brand new rail line stood out from the thawing wilds around it and stretched on and on for as far as the eye could see, reaching all the way over to the port in Anchorage in fact. All was still and peaceful in the area, trees stood tall and proud while small animals lazed at their roots. That was until an engine flashed by at line speed of course, towing what was considerably a small train of freight behind him, anything from wood timbers to snowmobiles to food supplies, and needless to say he didn't look especially impressed by anything around him. He surveyed his surroundings with a closed, flat expression even though he was a little curious. He was the first of his railway to come down the new and very long extension after all.  
Barely half way down the new line, that had to curve around the preserved forests, the engine was surprised to start seeing life in the middle of nowhere, small huts popping up out of the wilderness and dotted around in small hamlets or tiny villages, even though he knew he wasn't near the road connection quite yet. When the line curved around a hill, he was even more surprised to find a little station up ahead, but infinitely annoyed when his crew brought him to a stop there. Like the line, it was brand new and seemingly nothing more than an interchange, a simple two sided platform with a modest brick building, a huge yard and a large water tower and coal store, although the engine didn't need any of it yet. The line on the other side seemed to wind quickly away from the station and disappeared rapidly up into the mountains through a narrow pass. Not that he could see any other engines here.  
""Dei Lucrii". How pun-ny." The engine heard his driver muse, glancing over to the name sign that was on the side of the building.  
"Why is it punny?" The engine asked, clearly desperate to leave but his crew had taken to looking around.  
"The gods of profit in Roman times." His driver explained.  
"Rightttttt." The engine replied with a raised eyebrow, drawing out his word as his mood continued to slip, wheeshing steam out of his sides in irritation as his crew wandered further away.  
He wouldn't be left in peace long however as there was soon a whistle sounding as an another steam engine came rolling down the pass at quite a speed, a tender engine like him but painted in black with yellow and golden details, despite what was rather obviously a pair of coaches behind her having lilac on them. She rattled into the other side of the platform almost gracefully, coming to a rather sudden stop but it was like water off a duck's back to her. His crew had wandered far away now, so the engine was stuck.  
"Hi!" She chirped, smiling brightly at him. "I'm Danielle."  
"Peirce." The engine replied, physically wincing away from her cheeriness, but she didn't seem to notice.  
"Are you from the other railroad? The one that goes from the border to Anchorage?" She asked.  
"Sure am. I didn't know there were other railroads here."  
Danielle giggled at him, which only made Peirce release steam in a huff.  
"We've been here for years now." She explained. "We cover all the off-gridders in the mountains."  
"Sounds like a lot of work for one engine."  
"No, silly, there's twelve of us." Danielle replied, giggling again which made Peirce more embarrassed than anything else. "My twin sister is coming down after me for some of your freight."  
"Oh. So the coaches aren't yours I take it." Peirce half stated, half questioned, glancing back at them while they chattered amongst themselves.  
"No, they're one of my sister's too. She's in the works being repaired."  
Peirce had been about to ask something else to continue the small talk, but he ended up looking back over at the pass as another engine came down, whistling long and loud with a tone extremely similar to Danielle's. She even looked almost exactly the same, only being hot pink where Danielle was yellow and towing some trucks of ore from the mountains this time, enough to make Peirce's crew finally return. The new engine went straight past the platform and into the yard to begin shunting, making Danielle roll her eyes.  
"That's my twin sister, Clarabelle." Danielle told Peirce before she spoke louder, calling over to her sister. "Clarabelle, come meet Peirce. He's from the border railroad."  
"Hmm?" Clarabelle finally looked over from what she was doing, her eyes landing on Peirce, looking the dark green and white engine up and down a few times before grinning. "Well, hello there handsome."  
_"Oh god."_ Peirce felt himself physically wince away from Clarabelle as she rolled over to the platform and he heard his crew snickering in his cab. He had no idea how to deal with the flirting, having worked with all male engines at least on his current line, and so decided to pretend that it just wasn't happening.  
"Um, I have some freight here for you apparently, I don't know which it is." He told Clarabelle.  
"The snowmobiles and generators on the end. I'll get them so you can get going." She told him, immediately rolling over points before Peirce could protest.  
"What are you doing?!" He spluttered as she went across the line in front of him, over the running line he had turned off of to get to the station and around to start breaking down _his _train to get what she needed at an alarming speed.  
"Relax, this is normal around here." Clarabelle laughed from behind him. "It's not like there's anyone coming after you or anything."  
"Not that I know of!" He protested, pulling a strange face out of discomfort.  
"Then quit worrying!" She laughed, pushing the handful of flatbeds she wanted around to the yard and _then_ returning to put her trucks of ore onto the back of his train. Peirce only grew more horrified when he realised all of the crews were not only going with this but were acting like it was nothing.  
Danielle cast Peirce a sympathetic glance when Clarabelle returned to the yard and his train was ready to go.  
"I promise the rest of us aren't quite this much to handle." Danielle said to him quietly. "You'll see for yourself soon enough I'm sure."  
"Okayyyy." Peirce forced out a reply, very glad when the guard blew his whistle and he could get away from the twin sisters, leaving without even saying goodbye.

Peirce was glad to roll back into his shed that night, and even more glad to find only one other engine in there. He was awake and immediately started interacting with Peirce as soon as he got in, but Peirce didn't care in the slightest.  
"How's the new line?" The other engine asked, a strange looking Canadian engine whose accent never dulled.  
"Nice enough I suppose." Peirce verbally shrugged as his crew began to drop his fire. "Long and peaceful. Except for those mountain engines."  
"Mountain engines?"  
"Yeah, the ones that apparently serve a load of off-gridders and mines in the mountains. I only met two but they were crazy enough, god knows what happens on that railroad with _twelve_ of them."  
"The Kojak Benally guy." Peirce's fireman answered the Canadian engine's puzzled look, although it only made Peirce confused instead.  
"He runs all the mines in the mountains. He's quite an entrepreneur." The Canadian engine added.  
"If you admire him so much, you can take the freight down there instead then and I'll deal with the stuff along the border that I'm meant to." Peirce huffed, but his crew exchanged a look. "What?"  
"You do know you have been assigned there permanently, right?" His driver prompted.  
Peirce clearly pulled a face of some kind as everyone else around him started to laugh.  
"You'll get used to them, Peirce." The other engine soothed. "And you'll only have to encounter any of them once each way."  
"I think any further encounter will be enough to drain my sanity." Peirce grumbled.

Trips up and down that line came and went, much to Peirce's continued disappointment, and the longer he was out, the more of the mountain engines he met. As well as the twins Clarabelle and Danielle, there was their older brothers Ace and Bertram who were like jocky chalk and nerdy cheese, and their mass of younger siblings; calculated Edrick, motherly Fallon, aggressive Genevieve, quiet Harlon, imaginative Irenia and the younger set of twins Jacques and Ken whom Peirce had met once and found their pranking ways worse than Clarabelle's flirting. However, until one particular day, he was yet to meet the engine who had lilac stripes that matched the coaches that Danielle brought down that day, since Genevieve's coaches had bright purple stripes like she did.  
On that day, on his way back to the Canada border from Anchorage, Peirce found himself sat in the platform at Dei Lucrii, in the rain no less, waiting for a train to come down to pick up some crew. Peirce could see a plume of steam making it's way down towards him, running late of course, and he could only guess who it was even if none of the options especially pleased him. However, the whistle that came roaring down to him was just a little higher than any of the others, and curiosity overtook his weariness.  
The engine that screeched to a halt with the coaches Danielle brought down when he first met her did indeed have lilac stripes just like them but was also the smallest of all of the engines on that railroad, and also currently red in the face and breathless from the rush.  
"I'm so sorry I'm late!" The engine gasped, the handful of crew members she had brought down soon transferring to Peirce's train. "I came as fast as I could, but there's mud slides everywhere. I hope you didn't have to wait long."  
Silence fell for the moment it took Peirce to realise he was staring at the smaller engine, which only made both of them turn red and redder respectively.  
"N-No, no, it's fine, these things happen." Peirce replied with a small laugh.  
"You're Peirce, aren't you? Everyone has been talking about you." She continued, although quickly added. "W-We don't know any other engines around here. It's quite exciting."  
"I am. I guess you're Lizable, your siblings talk about you plenty too." Peirce lied a little on that last part, he had managed to get a glance at her nameplates as well.  
"We're all close on our railroad." Lizable blushed deeply with a shy smile. "What's your railroad like? They said you had workmates, not siblings."  
Peirce felt himself stiffen a little at the question. All the engines on the mountain line spoke so fondly of each other, but try as he might, he just couldn't see the majority of the other engines on his railroad in the same light.  
"They are right. I don't have any siblings on mine." He answered after a moment, when Lizable started to look particularly concerned. "We're all from different places, our owner brought us together just for his railroad."  
"Do you not get on with them?" She asked.  
However, Peirce didn't get to answer that one as his driver interrupted with a rather pointed cough.  
"Sorry, I won't keep you any longer." Lizable apologised gently. "I'll see you tomorrow?"  
"Tomorrow?" Peirce questioned as his crew climbed into his cab.  
"This is my regular train now." She explained with a shy but rather proud smile.  
"Tomorrow then." Peirce agreed, before whistling and setting off back towards the border.

Peirce found himself in a good mood when he rolled back into his shed that night, finding only the Canadian engine there just as it had been when he first went down that line, and he was quick to pick up the incoming engine's mood easily.  
"What's up with you? You're never this jolly." He questioned as Peirce reversed into place beside him.  
"Nothing is up. Just had a good day." Peirce answered.  
"Went a day without seeing those mountain engines did you?"  
"No. He met another one of them." His driver answered. "He gets on with this one."  
"Oh?"  
"Yeah, she was nice. And rather normal too, in her own way." Peirce answered, finding himself smiling to himself as he thought about the lilac striped engine.  
"So, it's a she, huh?" The Canadian engine pushed further, only for Peirce to shut down with a scowl.  
"All I'm saying is that she's the least crazy of the lot." Peirce grumbled. "It'll make the route a lot easier if she's all I have to deal with at Dei Lucrii."  
Nothing more was said verbally, but the Canadian engine and Peirce's crew exchanged a knowing look as they prepared him for the night.

Over the weeks that followed, with one season rolling into the next, Peirce did indeed frequently meet Lizable at Dei Lucrii, most days in fact, and often found himself disappointed when he was met by Genevieve or one of the others instead, which certainly didn't help any impression the two had of each other. Even when the rains started coming in at an odd time of the year and threatened to wash away parts of his route, it didn't dampen Peirce's enthusiasm to go down the line.  
One night, the rain was particularly heavy, leaving Peirce stuck at Anchorage for hours longer than he should have been and left him to run back home in the middle of the night with nothing but a head lamp and the rails for guidance. At least, that's what he thought until he approached Dei Lucrii and saw another light, too bright to just be a station lamp and too high off the ground to be a fire or a discarded hand lamp. He silently wished as he slowed to a stop at the station and found himself beaming as he rolled in.  
"Lizable!" He smiled as he stopped beside her. Peirce could barely pick her out due to her black paint, but the smaller engine was sat in the yard with her head lamp shining brightly in front of her, her two coaches sat on the opposite side of her and the only line further away from his own running line.  
"Shh!" Lizable was quick to try and get him to be quiet. "I've only just got them to sleep."  
Peirce glanced around her to see that her two coaches, Wolf and Bear, were indeed asleep but didn't seem to stir when the two engines started to talk.  
"What are you doing out at this time of night?" Lizable continued after a moment.  
"Ship got delayed in Anchorage because of the rough waters. Had to wait for it, it's got some parts for the others." Peirce explained quickly. "What about you?"  
"The pass collapsed with the rain. I couldn't get going in time to try and make it through." Lizable sighed, looking at the mentioned pass but it was too dark to see that far.  
"What about your crew?"  
"They went up the mountain to try and get help."  
"They left you here alone?! In the dark?!" Peirce questioned, although Lizable just shrugged it off.  
"There wasn't much else they could do. They left a little while ago, they should have alerted the others by now."  
Even in the dark, Lizable was clearly able to see the face that Peirce just pulled as she tried to soothe him, but thankfully Peirce's crew was having none of it either, climbing down from his cab to check the engine over.  
"You're freezing!" Peirce's driver protested, but Lizable just looked sheepish. "They shouldn't have left you like this! On your own on a rail line near hungry wildlife and who knows who else!"  
"I-I'm fine!" Lizable continued to protest. "I've got Bear and Wolf here and you can't stay here for the night."  
"She isn't wrong. They need the parts." Peirce's fireman argued gently, although his driver was soon arguing again.  
Peirce found himself torn. The others did need the parts, quite desperately in some cases, but he also felt extremely drawn to the possibility of staying with Lizable for the night. He thought as the others argued, trying to find a reason to stay, to argue that he couldn't get home either as his desperation to stay only grew. He glanced down into the light from their head lamps, but saw only stones, mud and rails, his line and Lizable's line and the points that connected them. A plan formed within seconds, Peirce suddenly jerking back over the points he had just come over in order to talk to Lizable and heard the satisfying sound of truck wheels crunching on ballast.  
"Peirce!" All three of them confronted him at the same time.  
"I thought I saw something in the light! It went towards the station!" Peirce lied. Even though his fireman gave him a suspicious look, Peirce's crew soon grabbed the torches and went to investigate the station.  
"Why did you do that?" Lizable hissed to him. "Your workmates need those parts!"  
"They can wait until morning." Peirce replied gently. "And I'd rather spend the night here anyway. With you."  
Even in the dim light, Peirce could see Lizable turning bright red and slipping into a stunned silence. It didn't last long as his crew soon returned and shone bright torch light deliberately into their faces.  
"So, when are you two getting together, huh?" His driver asked, looking initially irritated but sharing a smirk with his fireman when both of the engines spluttered in surprise. "Come on, everyone on our railroad knows it and you're just about as good as hiding it." He added, referring to Peirce and Lizable in turn.  
"But we're from different railroads!" Peirce protested.  
"So? My wife and I are from different countries." His fireman replied. "I spend most of the day out here with you all and she spends most of the day sewing clothes for other people."  
"How do you cope being away from her for so long?" Lizable asked with a look of sympathy.  
"We both have little things that one of us gave the other. Like my watch." He answered, flashing his watch to the two engines. It seemed simple enough, but well loved with engraving on the leather straps that Peirce couldn't make out.  
"We're engines. We don't have things to give each other, unless you count freight or coal." Peirce answered.  
"Good job I told my wife about you two then." He retorted, producing two small ribbons from his bag, one in Peirce's dark green and another in Lizable's lilac. He handed the dark green one to the driver and began climbing on Peirce's front, tying the lilac ribbon in a neat bow around his lamp holder, the fireman doing the same to Lizable with the dark green ribbon. Silence fell again, Peirce's crew disappearing behind him to uncouple the engine from the now derailed train while the two engines gazed softly at each other in an affectionate, unspoken admission.  
Nothing needed to be said as Peirce rolled himself into the line next to Lizable, his crew making camp in his cab and the engine wheeshing a little steam at her as he came to a stop in the peaceful night, their head lamps continuing to shine out into the darkness like lights from lighthouses.


	2. Part Two

Peirce arrived back to his own railroad's headquarters early that afternoon, still smiling to himself as he thought about the night he had just had with Lizable at the little station, the most peaceful night he had ever had. However, his peace was soon shattered as several pairs of angry eyes flashed over to him as soon as he rolled in with his train, including that of the Canadian engine.  
"And where do you think you've been?" He exclaimed. "We've been needing those parts!"  
"Trucks came off at some points near Dei Lucrii last night, couldn't get help until the morning." Peirce answered, letting some shunting engines take his train away now he was somewhere controlled. "Why, what have I missed?"  
"Only a very important announcement, that we all knew was coming."  
"What?" Peirce's boiler ran cold for just a moment, suddenly remembering the look on the controller's face as he told them he wanted to speak to them all when the worst of the day's work was done. "What did he say?"  
"Only that he's going to have to make cut backs to stop himself becoming bankrupt. That includes selling off lines and selling off some of us."  
"Some of _us_?" Peirce questioned a little too loud, receiving glares from other engines. "How will he pick?"  
"Those who are of more use to him stay basically." The Canadian engine was rather casual about this. "But, if I were you, I would be seen to be busy. Your absence last night wasn't unnoticed and he's only given us a week."  
"A week?" Peirce questioned, but gained no reply from the other engines as everyone dispersed to get to work.

The next week went by alarmingly quickly for Peirce as he took his trips up and down the line past Lizable's, taking more and more freight in an effort to prove himself worthy of staying and not being sold off somewhere else, away from his workmates and his love. He did his best to keep it a secret from Lizable, although he wasn't convinced he was doing a good job as she seemed to pick up on his shift in mood and increased loads but he always blamed the former on the latter. As the day drew closer, his worry only increased, but seeing Lizable always calmed him down for a little bit at least.  
However, when he arrived at Dei Lucrii that day, there was no one to be found. The yard was empty, the station buildings locked up and the lights off and the platform unswept, like no one had been down yet that morning. None of Peirce or his crew had to say anything, as they all shared a glance towards the mountains and didn't see the tiniest sign of life up there either.  
"They've probably had another rock slide up there. It's getting to that time of year." Peirce's driver tried to reassure him, but Peirce couldn't shake a terrible feeling as they left for the port.  
Peirce's terrible feeling was proved when they passed the small station again on the way back and Genevieve was sat in the station with her two coaches instead, looking even more irritated than ever and significantly distressed.  
"Genny, what's happened?" Peirce called as he rolled in, only to be met by a venomous gaze.  
"Genevieve to you." She snapped, before she took a deep breath in and out, even though she wasn't exactly pleasant even now. "Have you seen Lizable?"  
"No?" Peirce slowly answered in confusion. "Why?"  
"We were so sure she'd come to you." Genny groaned.  
"We're not doing great, but she probably knew that." Peirce grumbled. "Why would she come to me?"  
"She ran away."  
"What?!"  
"She ran away, took Bear and Wolf with her." Genny looked more sad the more she talked about it, and more tired too.  
"But, why? She adores you lot." Peirce questioned.  
"Kojak had an accident, isn't coming back for the foreseeable future." Genny explained. "His son has taken over in his father's place and brought in a load of diesels. Tried to push them out ourselves, their head honcho twisted my buffer real good but we're not giving in."  
"Did Lizable get picked out by them?" Peirce asked, casting a glance at Genny's visibly twisted and scarred buffer.  
"No. She got picked out by _him_." Genny spat venomously. "She's the littlest, so she was picked out and picked on to prove that the diesels were better. He tried to make her haul a huge train of ore, not even Ace would have been strong enough, so it wrecked at the entrance to our main yard, with her on the other side. She took her coaches and fled."  
"Where did she go? She didn't come to us, maybe she got lost." Peirce tried to reason.  
"I wish I knew." Genny continued to be venomous, but it wasn't directed at Peirce. "She was in such a panic I don't know if she even thought about going to you. The port is closer and if she's got on a ship there in some attempt to find help, who knows where she'll have ended up."  
"No one at the port said anything about an engine boarding a ship when I was there this morning." Peirce said. "No one said anything about anything unusual happening."  
"You've been working so hard you'd miss a mountain flying at your face." Genny quipped, but Peirce didn't respond and the pair of engines fell into silence. Even when Genny's guard blew his whistle for them to go, neither engine said a thing.

Peirce rolled silently into his railroad headquarters that evening, the sombre mood that hung over all the engines pushing his mood and thoughts down even further. Even the shunting engines that came to break down his load didn't say a word to him or to each other. The big engine rolled quietly to one side of the yard, joining a small queue of engines waiting to use the water tower.  
"Do you think you've done enough?" Peirce's crew came to his front to talk to him, but it was his driver who spoke first.  
"I don't know." The engine answered honestly, looking around at all the engines. The ones that weren't still working were sat by themselves, looking almost hostile. "But if I do survive the cull, I feel like it's going to be really toxic around here."  
"Then why don't you go now?" His fireman questioned.  
"What? And leave you behind? Everyone here and everything I know?" Peirce's voice cracked just a little with fear. "God knows who he'd sell me on to. Could be a scrap merchant and I'll end up under the torch."  
"Or it could be somewhere nice. That Sodor near the UK is meant to be a real safe haven for steam engines."  
"I don't know how much I like that risk." Peirce grumbled. "And I don't know what to do about Lizable either. What if she's got lost and ended up under the torch herself?"  
"There's not many places she could have gone this way that we wouldn't have heard about as soon as she rolled in." His driver countered. "I think she got on a ship."  
"So she could be anywhere in the world." His fireman added. "I don't know if she can be traced at this point."  
"I have a feeling that someone somewhere isn't telling us something." His driver scowled.  
"And you think it's the mountain engines?" Peirce questioned.  
"I do. I don't believe that story Genny spun. I've never known a Controller do that, even with considerable money to just dispose of."  
"You think I'd be able to find something if I went there?"  
"Possibly. But I don't know how you'll get there."  
"They're short an engine now, which for a railroad switching Controllers is pretty fatal." His fireman inputted.  
"You believe that story too?" His driver questioned, looking at the fireman as if he was crazy.  
"All I know is Lizable is gone and her siblings can't or won't go after her." His fireman held his hands up in defence. "I don't know if the Benally guy will look to buy a replacement, but I do know that once our Controller has decided what will happen, there is no changing his mind."  
"Could try asking the Controller about what he plans to do. Directly."  
"That won't look good. If we're asking to be transferred to another railroad he might change his mind from keeping us and if we're specific we'll look like choosing beggars and he'll want to get rid of us even faster."  
"It's not us he could be selling on, it's Peirce." His driver spoke up, looking at the engine with concern. "It's your call. What do you want to do?"  
Peirce froze up, too many thoughts floating around his smoke box for him to make any sense of them. Terror flashed through him as much as uncertainty did and he suddenly felt like he was being crushed by the weight of the world.  
"Here, you can have a nice long drink and think about it." His driver piped up again before the engine slipped into the void of insanity, quickly directing the engine over to the tower and leaving him to have a drink, a rest and a long, hard think.  
And thinking is what Peirce did, the words of both of his crew bouncing around his smoke box endlessly. He would miss everything he ever knew so much if he left, all the engines and the people and especially his crew, but he didn't know if it would continue to be a healthy work environment instead of the toxic survival-of-the-fittest environment where everyone had turned on each other, or at least go back to normal after it all blew over. At the same time, he wasn't sure about leaving either, knowing that his fate lay entirely in his Controller's hands and he didn't know where he would end up, let alone up on the mountain line like he would have hoped. Leaving would be the only chance he would have at finding his love, but he knew his chances weren't high.  
After what seemed like only a few minutes, Peirce's crew returned.  
"So, what's the verdict?" His driver asked.  
"I'd like to go and speak to the Controller before this evening." Peirce answered. "If I'm going to be leaving, I may as well try and make it work."  
"Sure?" His driver questioned, even though both of his crew were already making their way to his cab.  
"As sure as I'll ever be." Peirce replied uncertainly. "Please take me there before I change my mind."

At least a week after his fate was announced, and after spending all that time in the shed not working, Peirce was finally released to go to his new home. After being picked up and fired up by his new crew, he began the journey down the familiar line to the familiar station, not unsurprised to see a welcome party there but rather weary to see that it was Clarabelle and Genny there, both of which had polar opposite reactions to his arrival.  
"What are you doing here?" Genny scowled at him as he rolled up.  
"I'm joining your railroad." Peirce explained weakly, but making an attempt at a smile.  
"No you're not-"  
"Yes he is." The man on the platform cut Genny short flatly, who Peirce quickly guessed was the Controller. "I'm glad you all know each other so well because you'll all be spending lots of time together."  
"Great." Genny grumbled as the Controller climbed into her cab.  
"Aww, come on Genny, might be fun having him around." Clarabelle grinned, looking over at Peirce as he rolled around onto their line."At least we know him and know he can work."  
Genny offered no answer, simply glaring over at Peirce as the three engines made their way up the mountain and Clarabelle tried her best to bring Genny around to the idea, unsuccessfully of course.  
It didn't take them long to arrive in the main yard and Peirce was quick to notice the groove marks in the sleepers and ballast where trucks derailed and heavy trucks at that. It must have been where Lizable's train came off.  
"Hello Peirce." Danielle called over from the nearby shed where all of the other steam engines were sat. "Is it you that's coming here to join us?"  
"Yes." Clarabelle and Genny replied for him with varying degrees of enthusiasm, but Peirce managed a smile back at her, glad of someone who seemed happy to see him.  
"You can get out of the way and _then_ gossip." The Controller snapped, making Clarabelle and Genny retreat promptly back to the shed and Peirce followed more slowly as the Controller wandered over to one of the diesels who had been sat nearby, watching everything that was happening with a flat expression, aside from glaring at Genny as she went past, and a twisted buffer of his own.  
It soon became rather clear that while the yard was busy with work, it was only Clarabelle and Genny that had been steamed up and soon as the three of them backed into the shed the crews were soon dropping their fires.  
"What are you doing?" Peirce protested audibly, but Clarabelle and Danielle looked at him kindly, sharing the seeming defeat that all the steam engines had.  
"Just let them do it, it isn't worth fighting." Genny grumbled from behind him.  
"You can rest for a while." Danielle added, even though she looked like she hadn't moved, oiled or even been cleaned in days.  
"I'm not here to rest, I'm here to work." Peirce replied, although Genny laughed darkly.  
"And find Lizable too, I get it." She retorted. "He won't let us out to do _anything_, let alone search."  
"Then why did he buy me if he's just going to let me rust here?"  
"Because your old Controller contacted him directly." Clarabelle told him.  
"And you were cheap. Probably thinks he can make a profit off you from whoever he sells us to." Genny added again.  
"He's selling you-er, us?" Peirce looked between the engines he could see, who all seemed to have accepted their fate.  
"Yes. Crew says he's in talks with someone so it could be soon." Danielle answered.  
"Who with?" Peirce looked between them all, but the silence was enough answer for him.

After a few agonising days where Peirce was left in the shed with Lizable's siblings, unable to go out and work or look around or even speak to anyone else, the news came through that they had indeed been sold. Sir Topham Hat of Sodor had brought all twelve of them and Genny's two coaches upon recommendation and while no one said it aloud, they all hoped it meant what they thought it did.  
They all chattered excitedly on the way down to the ship at the port and on the journey over, finally allowed to run under their own steam for the first time in too long, too excited to sleep on the journey over, daydreaming about what their new home would be like.  
It didn't seem like that long at all before the ship that carried them all drew into the docks and started be unloaded by three different cranes. Being at the back of the ship, Peirce was last to be offloaded but he didn't mind because on his way down to the rails, he could see that there was someone there waiting for them.  
He had barely been unhooked from the crane before the others surged ahead in a chorus of joyful whistles, calling out the name of their lost sibling and she returned the favour. Peirce had never seen so much joy and love in one place and at once, and keen to not miss out, he was quick to get coupled up to Genny's coaches, Icicle and Glacier, and roll forward among all the steam.  
"Peirce!" Lizable greeted him with just as much joy as she did the others, although there was noticeable pause as she laid eyes on him.  
"Lizable! I'm so glad you're safe." Peirce replied, wheeshing steam happily out of his sides.  
"What are you doing here? The Fat Controller said you'd come from our line with everyone else." She questioned, seemingly ignoring Peirce's statement.  
"I was sold over to them. I was so worried when I heard you'd run away." Peirce answered, feeling a little stung.  
"You didn't have to worry about me like that. I made it here to Sodor safely." Lizable was rather dismissive and Peirce was confused, only compounded by a flicker in her expression as they spoke.  
"But-" Peirce was cut short as he realised there was another engine here too, and he was glaring over at them. The engine was historical looking despite being young in the face, painted black with red details and a tender covered in intricate patterns with "119" painted on as well. He looked over at them both with a mix of rage and jealousy, although it mostly seemed to be directed at Lizable.  
Finally, Peirce realised what was happening. In her few short weeks on Sodor, Lizable had found someone else. He was left in a stunned silence as Lizable began telling her siblings about the engine, Durant, and Peirce wondered if he had made the biggest mistake of his life.


End file.
